Sony details nifty second screen smartphone PS4 app

PS4's smartphone companion app will offer a host of extra functionality for owners of the console.

As well as being the gateway for ‘second screen' gameplay options available with certain PS4 titles, it will also allow users to communicate with folk on their PSN Friends list and remotely activate downloads.

It's an application that anyone can download for free on iOS and Android devices,” Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told the PlayStation Blog. There are a variety of things you can do with it.

You can connect to your PlayStation profile, and send messages – even voice messages – to friends between your smartphone and PS4. A friend on PS4 can also send out an invitation for a multiplayer game, which you can then check on the App, and you can also purchase PS4 games from PlayStation Store. Your game will immediately start downloading while you're away.”

So far Knack, Watch Dogs and Battlefield 4 have been confirmed to use second screen functionality in their PS4 versions, although Yoshida added that the platform holder is opening up the app for all developers, including indies.

Smaller developers can use PlayStation App to connect to PS4 and load an application, like drawing software for example, so that you don't have to download and install a specific app on your smartphone,” he added. It's open to all PS4 developers to use.”